Google admits that its Nexus One is a bit of a failure, so it's revamping its sales strategy.

Google's favored Android child isn't living up to its potential

Google's Nexus
One looked to follow in the success of Motorola's Droid
(Milestone) Android smartphone. It brought slightly improved
hardware (courtesy of hardware partner HTC), special software
attention from Google, and the possibility of picking from a variety
of carriers.

Sales of the Nexus One were conducted exclusively
through a new web store – and sales weren't very good. In
fact, Google as of March was estimated to have moved a
mere 135,000 units in the three months since its January
launch.

Now, as potentially superior competitors like the HTC
Incredible (Verizon) and HTC
EVO 4G (Sprint) storm the market, Google admits that choosing to
sell the phone online was a mistake. In a blog
post, Google writes:

But,
as with every innovation, some parts worked better than others. While
the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our
expectations, the web store has not. It’s remained a niche channel
for early adopters, but it’s clear that many customers like a
hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide
range of service plans to chose from.

Google
says that as a result of this realization, it will be phasing out the
web store and trying to get retailers to sell the phone, which is
currently available for AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.

Sprint
announced on May 10 that it would not be carrying the Nexus One,
despite earlier announcements that it would be
carrying the device. Along with Verizon's announcement that the
phone is not
coming to its network, it looks like the possibility of a CDMA
Nexus One release may be dead.

No retailers have been
announced yet, but likely candidates include Best Buy and Walmart.
Walmart back in January accidentally
posted the phone on their site, but then stated that
they had no plans to sell it.

Despite the Nexus
One's disappointing sales, the phone does have some fans. Linux
founder Linus Torvalds loves the phone and says that its the
first smartphone he finds to be tolerable. Hardware-wise it
might not be the best,
but it's still one of the best Android handsets on the market.